Use These 5 Tips To Build Your First Sales Page

That’s because we’re just bombarded with information everyday, and we can’t even begin to remember it all.

There are ads everywhere…on the side on the street, the internet and even on our phones.

That’s why the messages in these ads need to grab the reader’s attention…and get them to act NOW!

Because if you’re asking them to go home, discuss it with their family, and come back to buy from you tomorrow, they’re just going to forget.

A sales page gets them to buy now.

But first…you have to convince your readers that your product is worth it.

They have have selfish desires, just like you and me. But you can use that to your advantage to make a connection with them and show them that your product will solve their problem…using ethical techniques of persuasion.

But to do that, you have to…

Speak their language!

There are TONS of websites on the web that get caught up with technical jargon. They use language that the customers would never use…and this will KILLS sales!

There are websites that use taglines like “Use our product. It’s effective and efficient”.

There’s almost NO market where you can say that and be unique! NONE!

So when the reader closes that browser, they won’t remember you because you’ll just blend with the thousands of other people that use that exact same tagline for their business.

Effective and efficient just doesn’t mean anything in the prospect’s mind.

A good sales letter has the prospects nodding in agreement as they read it…because it matches the conversation they’re already having with themselves in their head.

This doesn’t mean you can just use logic to sell. It’s easy to say “Hey, my product is good, buy it and it’ll change your life”.

That may be true, but it won’t get him to buy!

Whenever you write a sales letter, you must ask yourself these questions:

Would the reader by richer, happier or healthier buying your product/service

Would it help their status?

Would it help you write/say anything better than before?

Answering these will help you get you inside your prospect’s head and think about what they need.

But you need to know more…you need to know about their hopes, fears and dreams!

Let’s say you have a prospect who’s an entrepreneur and you’re trying to sell him your marketing consulting services to help them grow their blog.

First ask them about their business.

Notice how I didn’t say ask them if they’d like to buy your services. It’s not about you…it’s all about THEM!

Once you ask, they might give you useless answer like “Ohh you know, business is good. We’re trying to grow next year.” That’s not going to help you – growing their business could mean a hundred different things.

Are they trying to increase profit, get more subscribers? You need them to be specific.

You can then ask them, “What keeps you up at night?” They might waffle a little bit and give you another useless answer…but you HAVE to keep probing. Ask them “What do you mean? Are you worried about not being able to sell the product?”

Be sincere and legitimately care about they have to say!

After a little more probing, they might say “No I know my product is good. I just hate promoting myself, so my blog isn’t growing.”

Interesting…this is a chance for you to find out why they hate promoting.

Not because of the reasons they tell you, but at an emotional level. Are they worried about being embarrassed if no one reads their blog? Are they worried that they’re wasting their time and they feel like a failure?

This is the kind of research you need to do BEFORE you start writing a sales letter.

Because if your sales letter started with “Here’s how you grow your blog”, then you’ll just blend with 10 other articles your readers will read that day on that same topic.

But…if you find that their #1 fear is that they’ll feel like a failure, you can start a sales letter with…

1) Headline

Writing a great headline is absolutely critical to the success of the sales letter because you only have a few seconds make an impression on your readers.

This is why great copywriters spend 50% of their time on just the headline!

An headline has two jobs. It has to:

Instantly catch the attention of the readers

Bring them into the ad by getting them intrigued

You need to use words that your readers can identify with. It breaks through the clutter because they’re going to be reading 100s of other websites that day, so you need to make sure that your sales page is what they focus on.

Don’t write your headline to impress your friends or your family, the only thing that matters is if your readers are buying your product.

There are a few ways to write a headline:

News – Benefit – Curiosity: This is similar to the news articles you’d read on your paper. For example “How a famous doctor…” or “Why are stronger more powerful…”. This story has to be relevant to your readers

Burning Curiosity: This is a headline that just describes the product and the benefit they’ll get from using it. For example “Learn to speak French fluently in…”

Let’s take a look at a headline from a product called Earn1k by Ramit Sethi.

Ramit is an NYT Bestselling Author and runs a very popular blog call I Will Teach You To Be Rich, where he teaches 600,000+ subscribers about entrepreneurship, personal finance and behavior change.

His program Earn1K teaches people how to make an extra $1,000 on the side by freelancing… using skills that they already have.

Ramit uses the following for his headline for Earn1K:

This is a burning curiosity headline. It describes exactly what the product does (finding a profitable idea) and the benefit his readers will get from buying it (earning $1,000/month by just working 5 hours a week).

Writing a great headline like this takes time and a lot of practice. Don’t expect to nail it on your first try.

A great way to practice would be to keep a swipe file of the successful letters that were mailed out for inspiration. One of the best places to start is a website called Swipe, where they store some of the most successful ads ever.

2) Opening paragraph

The purpose of the opening paragraph is to let your prospect get into the story.

It doesn’t have to be complex, it just has to let the reader know who you are and why they should listen to you.

Just state your case!

Let’s say you have a product about speed reading…

You can start by saying “My name is Bob, and I’ve just created a product that can instantly increase your reading speed by 2X. Here’s what I’ve discovered…”

Then you go into the story. Nothing magical…simply talking to your prospect like they’re someone you met a bar.

You can even use a question to get them intrigued and wanting to read on, something like…

“I just don’t have time to read…” – how often have you used that excuse with to your friends?

Let’s take Ramit’s Earn1K sales letter for example. He uses the same technique of asking a question and starts out by saying…

This gets his prospects to visualize where they’ll be in 8 weeks.

This hooks his readers right away and gets them to continue reading.

The point of your first sentence, is to get your prospects to read your second sentence…and the point of your second sentence, is to get your prospects to read the third sentence.

Having this mindset is crucial to the success of your sales letter. This will make sure that your letter flows.

But these sentences don’t have to be fancy. No technical mumbo jumbo, just pure bar talk.

3) The story

Humans are suckers for good stories. We crave it! A good story can move us emotionally and get us to take action.

That’s why telling a story in your sales letter is so crucial.

But that doesn’t mean you spend the entire sales letter talking about yourself and your story…

Always bring it back to the prospect!

Let’s look at Ramit’s example once again…

He gets them to visualize what their life would be like if they joined the program.

Nothing fancy or complicated…he gets right to the point because he knows that his readers don’t have time to waste.

The story you tell always has to be come back to your readers…it has to be relevant for them.

If at any point of the copy, the reader is able to ask the question “So what?”…you’ve already lost them.

This is why Ramit tells his readers how they can make an extra $1,000 on the side without being sleazy…because that’s a concern for his readers. They’re not looking for a full time job, they’re just looking to make extra income and they find selling to be very sleazy.

They’re skeptical, and they should be. They see tons of ads everyday…why should they believe you? They’ve been scammed before multiple times online by other marketers…how are you any different?

Here’s how you can be a good storyteller:

Read great novels like King Kong or Casablanca and think in terms of how the author is telling the story. As you’re watching, ask what just happened there? Why did I say I was quitting at page 50 and now on page 110

Watch older movies that didn’t rely on fancy graphics but told a compelling story like Woody Allen

3) State the benefits

This is the part in the sales letter where you talk about what your product can do…

Not what you like about your product…but what your readers will like about the product.

These are called The Benefits.

Let me show you what I mean…let’s say you’re trying to sell a product about speed reading.

To you, the benefit of the product is that it “Helps you read faster”, but that’s not enough to convince your prospects to buy.

How will they benefit from reading faster?

You need to talk about their pain point. What pain are they suffering from by not being able to read faster?

If your audience are CEOs or execs, you can say something like:

“Helps you read at 2X your normal speed so that next time you’re on a plane for a business trip, you can finish an entire book on how to generate more sales”

Or if your audience are children, you can say…

“Helps you read at twice your normal speed so that you finish reading the Harry Potter series faster than your friends”

Both these benefits are quantifiable and the prospect can visualize how his life will be different if they buy your product.

Let’s take a look at Ramit Sethi’s Earn1K product…

He doesn’t talk about how many HD videos you get when you buy his program, or the cool tricks and techniques…instead, he talks about what the readers can do by earning an extra $1,000 per month.

He makes it about THEM.

He talks about how they could quit their job and travel, how they can pay off their mortgage fasters and save money.

These are things his readers cares about!

All these benefits are about helping the reader live a great life and they can only be discovered by talking to them during deep research.

4) Testimonials

This is a chance for your to brag about why your product is great!

It’s a chance for you to gain credibility with your readers…

But you still have to do it strategically because testimonials are third party validation that your product works.

Let’s take a look at the testimonial Ramit uses for Earn1k:

These testimonials are short…but look how powerful they can be. He uses it very effectively to addresses they pain points the readers have about making extra money on the side:

They don’t have an idea

They don’t have time to earn more money

They’re not bland like “Great Product, thanks!” or “Changed my life!”…they’re very specific and these are the results his readers can expect as well.

Mentioning the exact number his readers earned is very powerful. This course is called Earn1K and it costs about $1,000 but he proves with his testimonials that his readers are easily getting 3X or even 80X the value despite having the exact same pain points as everyone else!

It tells his prospects that they can do it too!

And instead of him talking about how great his product is, he gets his students to do the bragging.

But what if you’re just starting out, and you don’t have a testimonial?

You can talk about a case study where someone used a similar technique as yours to get results. You can use news clips to prove that the benefit they’ll get from using a product similar to yours and the results they got from that.

5) The Offer

You’re now going to ask the reader to buy from you by putting in their credit card information.

A good offer has to counter any objection your reader might have for not buying your product.

But you have to close strong…if you’re asking your reader to go think about it, talk it over with the family member, and then come back to you, you’ve lost a sale.

You have to get them to buy NOW!

The perfect offer has 3 elements:

It has to state what you have

It has to tell them why it’s a bargain

It has to tell them why they should act NOW

A lot of sales letters tell the readers to buy now, but they forget to mention why they should buy now. You have to give them a reason…is it because you’re running out of stock, or is it because you don’t plan on selling this product again?

It could be anything…but there has to be a reason.

Let’s take a look at part of the offer Ramit uses for Earn1k:

He lists in detail what’s included in his product…and of course he offers a full money back guarantee to make the decision easy for his readers.

If his readers aren’t completely satisfied, they can send the product back for a FULL refund.

This takes a lot of pressure off, because since it’s an expensive product, they don’t want to get stuck with paying if they aren’t happy with Earn1k.

Your turn to create a great Sales Page

A great sales page is one of the most critical aspects of your business.

It’s not about fancy your sales page is, or what color the background is…all that matters is if you’re making money off it.

Register for FREE for this week’s masterclass, where we will reveal our latest findings as well as our best proven techniques for creating your very own sales page. We’ll walk you through the exact steps on how to set up sales page and start generating revenue.